Now, it must be noted that there is no statement officially linking the suspected new website- Thisdayonline.net to Thisday Newspapers. It is possible that the design used on thisdayonline.net isn’t about to be their new homepage design or does not belong to Thisday at all. But the fact that Thisdayonline.com (the current main site) was  for a short time redirecting to Thisdayonline.net (as reported in Oo’s blog) is strong evidence that there are indeed plans to overhaul the homepage and this is a likely design round. That aside, there are two things that I have discovered to be very clear about Thisdayonline.net:

• it is powered by blogging CMS WordPress
• it uses a free theme called ‘the beeb’

There seems to be part of the problem already. I have nothing against using downloaded themes but if  an organisation the size of Thisday can’t develop their own unique design, it shows a huge lack of creativity on their part. I’m sincerely hoping that Thisday doesn’t go ahead and commission this “new” design just to save them the enormous embrassment, and possibly complaints, they will receive for stealing. The current Thisday website, to me, is an absolute mess. Incidentally, it was another design copy of what the CNN website looked like at the time Thisdayonline.com was launched. Perhaps they should learn from previous mistakes and decide against to ripping-off the design of another global news organisation.

Around this time last week, every Nigerian football supporter must have been looking forward to the weekend because by the end of it, Nigeria would have played her two biggest games of the year one after the other. On one hand, the Super Eagles (a name which just doesn’t feel right to say anymore) were playing their last group game for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Qualification for South Africa was not in their hands as they not only had to beat Kenya in Nairobi, they had to also hope that group leaders Tunisia would lose to Mozambique in order to qualify. Very slim chance for Nigeria indeed and Tunisia were clearly the favourite to grab the ticket even among the most optimistic ‘naija’ supporter. On the other hand, the Golden Eaglets (another outdated nickname but maybe perhaps more appropriate) were on course to win the Under-17 Youth World Cup on home soil. Nigeria had won the tournament before, and seem to have pedigree in the competition always reaching the final stages. More-so, being the host and with the team displaying some excellent skill in previous macthes, the Eaglets were the clear favourites for the final and the cup.

Funny how 48 hours changes things isn’t it? Nigeria dramatically beat Kenya 2-3 on Saturday and Tunisia did their part to cock things up for themselves by bizarrely losing for the first time in the entire qualification series to Mozambique. It means the Super Eagles will be going to the World Cup afterall against all odds. Many will say that they didn’t deserve to qualify, but I think they deserve some credit for the luck they had. With that positive result, expectation and spirits must have been high going into Sunday’s U-17  final in Abuja where the Golden Eaglets were on course to retain their own title. It wasn’t to be though as they failed to beat Switzerland losing 0-1. It seems their luck quota ran out on Saturday as they were the better team on the night. They too should be proud of their efforts.  As I reflect on Nigeria’s big football weekend, it’s fair to say it was mixed although I’m sure most fans would still choose the senior team make the World Cup rather than being crowned “teenage champions of the world” if we had to choose one outcome.

I, for one, didn’t pay much attention to the U-17 tournament mainly because of the reputation we had for fielding over-aged players  in past events; muscling our way through to glory against younger oppositiont. Besides, it’s not a tournament I rate very much anyway and seeing how the local organisers in Nigeria ran things, it was probably better to avoid watching yet another federal government PR and sports disaster for the country. But then, shouldn’t I have avoided watching the Super Eagles as well? If ever a disaster was apparent it was Nigeria being on course to miss out on yet another World Cup. I ask myself, why did I still harbour the belief that they could still somehow qualify? I guess when you love your team, it’s hard to choose. And just like love, Football is all about joy and pain.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

The story is essentially about aliens who have somehow missed their way and ‘crashed’ into earth’s atmosphere above Johannesburg in South Africa. The extraterrestrials are unable to get their massive hovering space ship working so are left stranded helplessly on earth. The controversy surrounding the film truly begins when Nigerians are shown to be facilitators in fraud in District 9. Illegal weapons trading, cat food scams (akin to drugs I’m guessing) and even inter-species prostitution; the Nigerians were doing it. The ring leader of the Nigerians is even called ‘Obasanjo‘ (or something sounding close); a name choice obviously inspired by ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Interestingly, for a film that involves itself with touchy issues such as race and prejudice in the South African context, the only real political landmine that emerged was the singling out and negative labelling of Nigerians. This is a quite a shame because the film is actually quite good with a mature script, nice characters and plenty of action. Most significantly, it also successfully brings some sensitive issues to our consciousness without being excessively political or offensive – except of course the many Nigerians who are quite angry about it. Even though I don’t share this anger, I feel it is totally understandable that some people would feel offended. It appears to me that Neill Blomkamp, Peter Jackson and the rest of the production crew have deliberately chosen to pick on Nigerians for two reasons:

1. Nigerians already have a worldwide reputation for criminality
2. It is well known that Nigerians are often favourites to receive blame for delinquency in South Africa

District 9 is a fiction movie, but the political undertones and parallels are based on reality. The danger here is that a movie like this has the potential to reinforce the negative stereotypes towards Nigerians all over the world, even discrediting the majority honest and hard-working ones. We have also seen recently how the xenophobic feeling can have deadly consequences to foreigners in South Africa including Nigerians.  I feel that what the District 9 film makers did was to provide the audience with an easily recognisable ‘enemy’ for that role in order to give the film more credibility as being realistic. Everyone who has received one of those ‘419′ scam emails always purported to be from some Nigerian government official or bank chief  would almost immediately relate to this labelling of Nigerians as criminals. It’s a cheap shot that is even sadder considering that the actors used weren’t even speaking any real Nigerian language. They couldn’t even be bothered to choose a Nigerian name beyond the obvious surname of a popular ex-leader.

The shame for Nigerians doesn’t end there though. Prof. Dora Akinyuli, Minister for Information, has announced that the movie has been banned from showing in Nigeria because “…it portrays Nigeria in bad light”. It’s an extreme measure taken by what seems to be a clueless government. Do they not realise it’s only just going to generate more interest? That is not my issue with the government’s response anyway. My question to Aunty Dora & Co. is: why are they so suddenly obsessed with Nigeria’s image in the eyes of the world? They have been pushing this “rebranding the nation” very hard but seem to forget that the reputation of the Nigerian brand is in our own hands and not that of Hollywood directors or Sony Corporation. Maybe the brand-protection effort should be applied more on the Nigerian entertainment industry that constantly shows our indulgence with themes of witch-craft and desire to get rich by any means necessary.

Actually, maybe all this is a fuss about nothing. Maybe we need to watch the District 9 again and see that the heroes and villains in the film are not as obvious as one imagines. Perhaps the aliens, being the victims of hatred and oppression by humans, are the heroes. That would mean that the Nigerians could be seen as accomplices to the ‘good guys’? I for one can’t wait for District 10, or better still a Nollywood version called District 9ja. I already have some actors in mind.